Ugh, this years injuries are insane. Carson Wentz going down became the 16th team (half the league!) who have had season ending injuries or benchings. They were Super Bowl favorites until this week. He tore his ACL and stayed in the game for 4 plays, including throwing a TD. I vaguely remember Phillip Rivers doing the same thing several years back, but this is unheard of. That’s North Dakota tough.

Quick Hits:

Apparently diving at a player’s knees during the victory formation and then trying to climb into the stands to fight a fan doesn’t warrant a suspension anymore….

My second point about this, is that we’re hearing how egregious the fans’ actions were to throw drinks onto the field, yet nobody is talking about both Bennett and Jefferson literally trying to end a lineman’s season and inflict both physical and financial

The NFL will never get any credibility regarding the safety of its players if they don’t start enforcing concussion protocol rules. Tom Savage’s incident was, well, savage. But they need to be able to take out Russell Wilson caliber players if they suspect concussions.

The Pittsburgh Ravens game was one of the better ones of the year. 39-38 against bitter rivals.

How did the Patriots lose on Monday night? Looks like that Gronk suspension actually meant something.

Packers almost lost to the Browns, needed a 14 point comeback just to take it into OT! But Aaron Rodgers is back baby!!!

Alright, I know I promised at the beginning of the season I wouldn’t dissect plays or sequences, but the Jaguars and Chargers game was just too crazy to not address. If you know what happened, skip this, but otherwise it’s worth reading! Let’s set the scene. Chargers up 17-14 with 2:51 left in the game, they are just punting the ball to Jacksonville.

After 49 seconds and crossing midfield, Bortles throws an interception. Should be game over, right?

1st play, Chargers Fumble! Jags run it back for a score, but it’s reversed. But hey, they have the ball in FG range already

Hold your horses, at the 22 yard line (so a 39 yard Field Goal), Bortles throws ANOTHER interception. Game over, right?

Nope, Jags have all 3 timeouts since they fumbled the first play last time. 3 runs and 3 timeouts later, there’s 1:08 in the game and Chargers have to punt

Josh Lambo, ex Charger, nails a short FG to tie the game as time expires. Overtime

Jags punt first possession

Chargers throw deep and it’s caught by Travis Benjamin only to be ripped out of his hands and ruled an interception. Guy runs it back 51 yards and gets tackled at the 2 yd line

Now fun with penalties. There’s a 15 yard penalty on the INT for taunting. Ball at the 17. Jags go nowhere in 3 plays and line up to kick a field goal, but there’s a delay of game on the defense, march the ball forward 5 yards.

Field Goal is BLOCKED! But trickles barely over the uprights. Jags win! BUT, had that delay of game not been called, the ball would have fallen short.

Kind of a rough week, only 2 games were within 3 points (Steelers and Broncos), otherwise every other matchup was at least a TD difference. But Week 1 is always about getting the kinks out, and we’ve got some good divisional matchups coming up as well as an NFC Championship rematch.

Quick Hits:

Carson Wentz’ evasion of the sack and TD toss to Nelson Agholor was insane.

Watching Matt Ryan slip, nearly get sacked, and toss an 88 yd TD to slow as molasses Austin Hooper was also insane.

Get ready to see more Tarik Cohen in Chicago, wow was he impressive!

The Bears really hung in there against a Super Bowl caliber team. In fact they should have won

Felt like I noticed the Cardinals were handling the Lions, and then the next time I looked the Lions had scored 28 points

Feel bad for Houston, so much energy to start the game, but they fell completely flat

Cole Beasley’s catch behind back. Not catch of the year material, but still have never seen anything like it before

For the Record:

Had the Bears completed their comeback against the Falcons, the media would have had a field day!

The look in Adrian Peterson’s eyes behind Sean Payton. Scary

For all the talk the Patriots had about their Super Bowl comeback, they sure emptied the stadium quick with the game not out of hand.

On the same wavelength, there sure was a lot of 19-0 talks about the Patriots this offseason, that was quieted in less than 3 hours.

FMQB is a day early for your brief reading enjoyment while trying to avoid family members. I will throw a few facts out about each 3 games for you to impress your friends, even for the most casual of football watchers!

Game 1:

Vikings vs. Lions: The two teams are tied in the division, with Detroit currently holding the tiebreaker. Minnesota has lost 4 of it’s last 5 while Detroit has won 5 of it’s last 6. The Bears are the only team who have beaten both the Vikes and Lions. If the Lions win, they will be in sole possession of 1st place; a full game up on the Vikings and holding the tiebreaker with only 5 games left.

Game 2:

Redskins vs. Cowboys: The Cowboys are on a 9 game winning streak, and the Redskins are 6-1-1 in their last 8 games. Their only losses have come from all Thanksgiving teams; Cowboys, Lions and Steelers. Kirk Cousins is 3rd in the league in passing yards, while Dak Prescott is 3rd in the league in passer rating.

Game 3:

Steelers vs. Colts: After starting strong, the Steelers have lost 4 of 5 and their win was against the Browns. The Colts have had a couple impressive wins against the surging Titans and at Green Bay, but Andrew Luck’s status is in question which would severely hamper the game. If Andrew Luck is out, people in tryptophan comas may not be missing much…

Quick Hits: Teams we Don’t usually talk about:

The Chiefs suffered only their 3rd loss in their last 20 regular season games

The Dolphins and Giants have both won 5 in a row.

The Buccaneers are also only a game out of 1st place, and have road wins at Atlanta and at Kansas City

Stat of the Week:

The 6 highest scoring teams this year are the Falcons, Chargers, Cowboys, Saints, Titans, and Raiders. None of which made the playoffs last year

Coworker Stat of the Week #2:

Kickers are 87% on XPs this year, while 2pt conversions are 36/67, 53%. Tell me again why teams don’t go for 2pts every time? Except the Titans, who are 0/4 on 2pt conversions, while 29/31 (94%) on XPs…Thanks Mickey! With that logic, currently 635 points were scored after TD’s this year. But if every team went for 2 pts, that number would climb to a whopping 756 points!

Quote of the Week:

“And Kaepernick has some speed! Not weighted down by that “I Voted” sticker- CBS Announcer

For the Record:

Aaron Rodgers has 25 TD’s vs 7 INT’s, yet the Packers are 4-6. Perhaps that’s proof that it’s not his fault. However the season is likely over with 2 teams with a 2 game lead over the Packers.

You can go to a Browns game for only $6, but you’ll have to pay between $25-50 for parking. It’s literally more expensive for your car to go to a Browns game than for you!!!

The NFC East and AFC West are hands down the 2 most competitive divisions out there.

Jared Goff didn’t lose the game for the Rams. He didn’t win it though either.

The handoff, then throw from the WR to the QB never works. But it did Sunday

The Extra Point Rule Change is Awesome!

Kickers missed 12 extra points on Sunday. Blasting by the old record of 8 in one day. Keep in mind that in 2014, the league missed 8 all year! Only 3 of these were actually blocked, the other 9 were flat out missed. I have heard people saying that this is an embarrassment to both kickers and the league, but this play has become “useful” again. Hands down the best rule change the NFL has made in the last decade.

Instant Replay on the Otherhand…

Something has to be done about the officiating, or instant replay. I hate being that guy who complains about the refs, but we’ve seen blatant calls or things that could have been reviewed closer that is costing teams wins. Houston had 2 blown calls, 1 on replay which was obviously a 1st down. Either one changes the game in their favor. You had the Saints miss out on a very likely out of bounds step

If the Playoffs Started Today:

Oakland and Dallas would have home field advantage, despite combining to go 11-21 last year.

Osweiler would have a home re-match against his hated Broncos

There would be 3 AFC West and 3 NFC East teams in the playoffs

The Lions and Texans would host a playoff game

The Browns are now 0-8 since Terrell Pryor suggested the team could win out

We’re to playoff time! The season is always fun, but the final 11 games always ramp up the pressure and drama. But first, a few Week 17 notes.

Week 17

The Jets controlled their destiny and missed out on the playoffs, losing to nemesis Buffalo with only revenge to play for. Feel bad for Ryan Fitzpatrick, who sort of revitalized his career this year and played solid football, but has never seen the playoffs.

Still shocked that the Patriots laid an egg against the Dolphins, and gave up the #1 seed. It’s a good thing that Brady has a BYE, because he looked severely hobbled after the game.

After a hot start and then dreadful losing streak, the final Panthers game was the Falcons Super Bowl this year. It was a bit disappointing to see them get 14 wins and not be able to finish it off. They didn’t even need trick plays or turnovers to lose the game. The Falcons dominated the clock, and they dominated on 3rd down defense. The Panthers only had 8 possessions, didn’t score a TD after their opening drive, and were held to a dismal 113 yards passing. It may be a blessing in disguise though, as now they won’t face the pressure that the 2007 Patriots faced, and they won’t be forced to make the “resting” decision this week.

Sure they were only playing the Cowboys, but the Packers looked to return to a bit of their old selves. They showed improvement after a 2-4 six game stretch, and they probably shouldn’t have beaten the Lions. Mike McCarthy is back to calling plays, which seemed to help both Aaron Rodgers and the run game. In fact, the Packers ran for 230 yards on 44 carries (vs. 35 passes for 218). And 28 points will win you a lot of games in the NFL, but in saying that there was a stretch of 5 straight punts on offense in the 2nd half.

Quick Hits:

Russell Wilson threw his 2nd 5 TD game in 3 weeks

Brock Osweiler lost for the first time in his career. He has now led his team to 1 TD in 2 games

Jacksonville has a legit shot at winning the division. They play the Falcons, Saints, and Texans. And the Texans and Colts are down to 3rd string QB’s

Andy Dalton getting injured this late in the season nearly guarantees a playoff birth but 1st round loss for the 5th straight year

Speaking of Dalton, didn’t it seem like he was in the locker room, back in street clothes, and fully casted up in about 7 minutes?

Sending LeSean McCoy as the only Bills captain against his old team? Love it!

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About FMQB

FMQB is a blog for football fans, by a football fan. Each week I try to show some insights into several games and interesting statistics while also bringing humor to the mix. Join me for some fun by taking a quick break every week to re-live the best game in the world.